Gloria Gaynor

Gloria Gaynor Biography

Gloria Gaynor (born September 7, 1949) is an American singer, best known for the disco era hits "I Will Survive" (Hot 100 number 1, 1979), "Never Can Say Goodbye" (Hot 100 number 9, 1974), "Let Me Know (I Have a Right)" (Hot 100 number 42, 1980) and "I Am What I Am" (R&B number 82, 1983).

Early life

Gaynor was born in Newark, New Jersey, to Queenie May Proctor and Daniel Fowles. Gaynor's grandmother always lived nearby and was involved in her upbringing. "There was always music in our house", Gaynor wrote in her autobiography, I Will Survive. She enjoyed listening to the radio, and to records by Nat "King" Cole and Sarah Vaughan. Her father played the ukulele and guitar and sang professionally in nightclubs with a group called Step 'n' Fetchit. Her brothers sang gospel and formed a quartet with a friend. Gaynor was not allowed to sing with the all-male group, nor was her younger brother, Arthur, because he was too young. Arthur later acted as a tour manager for Gaynor. The family was relatively poor, but Gaynor recalls the house being filled with laughter and happiness, and the dinner table being open to neighborhood friends. They moved to a housing project in 1960 and Gloria grew up as a tomboy. "All through my young life I wanted to sing, although nobody in my family knew it", Gaynor wrote in her autobiography. Gloria was a member of her school choir, the mixed chorus, and the girls' glee club. Because no one in the house paid attention to her singing she never got the feeling that any of them thought she had a good voice but after an initial rush of stage fright before her first solo, Gaynor's confidence in her singing grew. Gloria graduated from high school with honors and knew she wanted a singing career. To appease her mother, who wanted Gaynor to have "something to fall back on", she went to beauty school and took business courses. While she continued to practice her singing, she worked many non-singing jobs in the years after high school, including a job at Bamberger's department store.

Early career

Gaynor was a singer with the Soul Satisfiers, a jazz/pop band, in the 1960s. As Gloria Fowler she recorded "Will You Be My Guy / Train Of Love" for a small Chicago label releasing a second single "She'll Be Sorry/Let Me Go Baby" as Gloria Gaynor in 1965.

Her first real success came in 1975 with the release of her album Never Can Say Goodbye, which established her as a disco artist. The first side of this album consisted of three disco songs ("Honey Bee", "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Reach Out, I'll Be There"), with no breaks in between the songs. This 19-minute dance marathon proved to be enormously popular, especially at dance clubs. All three songs were released as singles via radio edits, and all of them became hits. The album was instrumental in introducing disco music to the public, "Never Can Say Goodbye" becoming the first song to top Billboard magazine's dance chart. Capitalizing on the success of her first album, Gloria Gaynor quickly released her second album, Experience Gloria Gaynor, later that same year. While this album was also successful, it was not quite as popular as her previous album in the mainstream.

Some of her lesser-known singles, due to lack of recurrent airplay — including "Honey Bee" (1974), "Casanova Brown" (1975), and "Let's Make A Deal" (1976) — became hits in the clubs and reached the Top 5 on Billboard's disco charts. After her 1976 album, I've Got You, Gaynor shifted from her hit production team, to work with other productions. While it seemed like a good move, her subsequent producers did not seem to match Gaynor's vocal approach and style as well.

Major mainstream breakthrough

In the next few years, Gloria Gaynor released the albums Glorious and Park Avenue Sound, but would only enjoy a few moderate hits. However, in late 1978, with the release of her album Love Tracks, she climbed the pop charts again because of her song "I Will Survive". The lyrics of this song are written from the point of view of a woman, recently dumped, telling her former lover that she can cope without him and does not want anything more to do with him. The song has become something of an anthem of female emancipation, and is still the #1 staple of office parties and karaoke nights.

Interestingly, the song "I Will Survive" was originally the B-side when Polydor Records released it in late 1978. The A-side, a song called "Substitute", then a recent worldwide hit for South African girl-group Clout, was considered more "radio friendly". Boston Disco Radio DJ Jack King turned the record over and recalls being stunned by what he heard. "I couldn't believe they were burying this monster hit on the B-side", says King. "I played it and played it and my listeners went nuts!" This massive audience response forced the record company to flip the songs, so that subsequent copies of the single listed the more popular song on the A-side. King was honored at New York's "Disco Masters Awards Show" for 3 consecutive years (1979"1981) in recognition of his relentless push of the song. The song was awarded the only Grammy Award ever for Best Disco Recording in 1980.

As a disco number, the song was unique for its time by virtue of Gaynor's having no background singers. And, unlike her first disco hits, the track was not pitched up to make it faster and to render Gaynor's recorded voice in a higher register than that in which she actually sang. Most disco hits at the time were heavily produced, with multiple voices, overdubs, and adjustments to pitch and speed. "I Will Survive" had a much more spare and "clean" sound. Had it been originally planned and released as an A-side, it would almost certainly have undergone a substantially more heavy-handed remix. In late 1979, she released the album I Have a Right which contained her next disco hit, "Let Me Know (I Have a Right)", which featured Doc Severinsen of The Tonight Show fame, on trumpet solo. Gaynor also recorded a disco song called "Love Is Just a Heartbeat Away" in 1979 for the vampire movie Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula which featured a number of disco songs.

Stateside career

In 1980 and again in 1981, Gaynor released two disco albums which were virtually ignored in the United States due to the backlash against disco, which began late in 1979. The album's singles barely registered on Urban contemporary radio, where disco music remained popular. In 1982, having looked into a wide variety of faiths and religious movements, she became a Christian and began to distance herself from a past she considered to be sinful. She would not release an album in 1982. In 1983, she released an album entitled Gloria Gaynor, in which she rejected disco for mid-tempo R&B and Pop style songs. The album contained a patriotic song called "America" as well as a new version of "I Will Survive". In this new version of "I Will Survive", she changed the lyrics of the song in order to advertise her new conversion to Christianity. The words "It took all the strength I had not to fall apart" were changed to "Only the Lord could give me strength not to fall apart". The album was not a success in the Pop, Dance or Urban markets. This move proved to be a turn off to all other than her devoted fans.

Gaynor would achieve her final success in the '80s with the release of her album I Am Gloria Gaynor in 1984. This was mainly due to the song "I Am What I Am", which became a hit at dance clubs, and then on the Club Play chart in late 1983/early 1984. "I Am What I Am" made Gaynor a gay icon. However, her career went into sharp decline following this hit. She mainly made her living outside of the US where there was never any disco backlash. Her 1986 album, The Power of Gloria Gaynor, was almost entirely composed of cover versions of other songs that were popular at the time. The album was ignored, becoming a commercial failure.

Career revival

Gaynor's career received a revitalizing spark in the early and mid 1990s with the worldwide Disco revival movement. During the late 1990s, she dabbled in acting for a while, guest starring on The Wayans Bros, That '70s Show (singing "I Will Survive" in a gag scene), and Ally McBeal before doing a limited engagement performance in Broadway's Smokey Joe's Cafe. In 2001 Gaynor performed "I Will Survive" at the 30th Anniversary Concert for Michael Jackson.

Gloria Gaynor returned to the recording studio in 2002, releasing her first album in over 15 years, entitled, I Wish You Love. The two singles released from the album, "Just Keep Thinking About You" and "I Never Knew", both topped Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play. Both singles also secured moderate to heavy Dance format radio airplay. The latter song also charted #30 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. In 2004, Gaynor re-released her 1997 album The Answer (also released under the title What a Life) as a follow up to her successful album I Wish You Love. The album includes her popular club hit "Oh, What a Life".

On September 19, 2005, Gaynor was honored twice when she and her music were inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame. She was inducted in the Artist Inductees category along with fellow disco legends Chic and the late Sylvester. Her classic anthem "I Will Survive" was inducted under the Records Inductees category. In January 2008, The American Diabetes Association named Gaynor the Honorary Spokesperson of the 2008 NYC Step Out To Fight Diabetes Walk.

More television appearances followed in the late 2000s with 2009 appearances on The John Kerwin Show, The Wendy Williams Show, and The View to promote the 30th anniversary of "I Will Survive". In 2010, she appeared on Last Comic Standing and The Tonight Show.

After almost 30 years of its release, Gaynor continues to ride the success of "I Will Survive", touring the country and the world over and performing her signature song on dozens of TV shows. A few successful remixes of the song during the 1990s and 2000s along with new versions of the song by Lonnie Gordon, Diana Ross, Chantay Savage, rock group Cake and others as well as constant recurrent airplay on nearly all Soft AC and Rhythmic format radio stations have helped to keep the song in the mainstream. Said Gaynor of her biggest hit in a 2012 interview "It feels great to have such a song like that because I get kids five and six years old telling me they like the song, and then people seventy-five and eighty. It's quite an honor."

Gaynor and her husband have been residents of Green Brook Township, New Jersey. Gaynor is a Christian and is currently recording a Contemporary Christian album which is planning to be released in late 2012.

Discography

Albums

1975: Never Can Say Goodbye (MGM) - US Pop #25, US R&B #21
1975: Experience Gloria Gaynor (MGM) - US Pop #64, US R&B #32
1976: I've Got You (Polydor) - US Pop #107, US R&B #40
1977: Glorious (Polydor) - US Pop #183
1978: Park Avenue Sound (Polydor)
1978: Love Tracks (Polydor) - US Pop #4, US R&B #4
1979: I Have a Right (Polydor) - US Pop #58, US R&B #56
1980: Stories - US Pop #178
1981: I Kinda Like Me (Polydor) -US Pop #206
1982: Gloria Gaynor (Ecstasy) - US Pop #210
1983: I Am Gloria Gaynor (Chrysalis)
1986: The Power of Gloria Gaynor (Stylus)
1990: Gloria Gaynor '90
1992: Love Affair
1995: I'll Be There (Radikal)
1997: The Answer (Florical)
2002: I Wish You Love (Bell)
2005: Live! At John J. Burns Town Park (Instant Live)
2007: Christmas Presence (Glolo)

Compilations

1977 - The Best of Gloria Gaynor
1982 - Greatest Hits
1994 - Reach Out
1995 - I'll Be There
1996 - The Collection
1998 - I Will Survive: The Anthology
1998 - The Gloria Gaynor Album
2000 - 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best of Gloria Gaynor
2001 - Ten Best: The Millennium Versions
2002 - I Will Survive
2006 - All The Hits Remixed

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions
Year	Single	US	US R&B	US Dance	US AC	UK
1974	"Honey Bee"	-	55	-	-	-
1974	"Never Can Say Goodbye"	9	34	1	-	2
1975	"Reach Out I'll Be There"	60	-	-	-	14
	"Real Good People"	-	-	6	-	-
	"Walk On By"	98	-	8	-	-
	"All I Need Is Your Sweet Lovin'"	-	-	-	-	44
	"Casanova Brown"	-	-	1	-	-
	"(If You Want It) Do It Yourself"	98	24	-	-	-
	"How High the Moon"	75	73	-	-	33
1976	"Let's Make a Deal"	-	95	-	-	-
1978	"I Will Survive"	1	4	1	-	1
1978	"Substitute"	107	78	-	-	-
1979	"Anybody Wanna Party"	105	16	-	-	-
1979	"Let Me Know (I Have a Right)"	42	-	-	-	32
1980	"Tonight"	-	-	-	-	-
1981	"Let's Mend What's Been Broken"	-	76	-	-	-
1983	"I Am What I Am"	-	82	-	-	13
1984	"Strive"	-	-	-	-	-
1985	"My Love Is Music"	-	-	-	-	-
1986	"Don't You Dare Call It Love"	-	-	-	-	-
1987	"Be Soft with Me Tonight"	-	-	-	-	-
1993	"I Will Survive" (remix)	-	-	-	-	5
1997	"Mighty High" (with The Trammps)	-	-	12	-	-
1998	"Never Can Say Goodbye 1998"	-	-	-	-	-
2000	"Last Night"	-	-	-	-	67
2001	"Just Keep Thinking About You"	-	-	1	-	-
2002	"I Never Knew"	-	-	1	30	-
2006	"The Power of a Woman In Love"	-	-	-	-	-
2008	"Hacer Por Hacer" (with Miguel Bosé)^[A]	-	-	-	-	-
""?" denotes releases that did not chart

Notes

A^ "Hacer Por Hacer" reached #17 in Spain.